Activists bring concerns about jail conditions to Alameda County supervisors

John Jones III, right, urges supporters of Prisoners United to “center” the group’s concerns.

On Thursday morning, about 20 Oakland activists and community members gathered outside the Alameda County Administration Building before a meeting called by the Board of Supervisors to discuss conditions in the county jails. Bagels in hand, they pledged to obtain two pieces of information from the sheriff’s department: One, the department’s policy on how it classifies inmates for housing and eligibility for privileges like family visits and level of yard access. They were seeking that information to help inmates file grievances regarding discrimination they allege is embedded in the classification process. Two, they wanted to determine an administrative pathway for inmates to get re-classified out of administrative segregation—the mandated isolation otherwise known as solitary confinement.

This was the second meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Public Protections Committee since October, when 212 inmates, members of the group Prisoners United, went on a five-day hunger strike to protest conditions in the county’s two jails, Santa Rita Jail and Glenn E. Dyer Detention Facility. The strike, from October 15 to October 21, also spread to Santa Clara County Main Jail in San Jose and Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas. Strikers called for five demands: An end to “the practice of indefinite solitary confinement; subjective grievance practices; abuse of discretion to lockdown; insufficient and unsanitary clothing; and insufficient food and starvation for indigent prisoners,” according to a letter written by members of Prisoners United on October 17.

In response to these demands, the committee convened on November 9 to inquire into the inmates’ grievances and to hear reports from Alameda County Sheriff’s Department representatives. No formal action was taken at this meeting. Several weeks later, 168 inmates participated in a second hunger strike from December 1 to December 12, according to the sheriff’s department.